MISCELLANEOUS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 417, 5 April 1877, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The ' Guardian * says an ingenious method of raising the wind was in full operation in a shed near Mr. Inglis, the diaper's, in George-street on Saturday evening. , The shed was decorated with the stock-in-trade of a Cheap John, with all kind 3 of " Brummagem " articles, while on a long counter was displayed a collection of cheap Btereoscopea with the portraits of popular actresses in skintights. A broken winded concertina, playing a doleful dance-tune, answered the purpose of the crier's flageolet, and attracted the passengers from the footpath. Half-a-score of smartly-dressed Jesuitical looking young mea conducted -the catchpenny business. Half of them were posted behind the counter with packets of sealed envelopes in their hands, while the other half did the "artful dodger "among the onlookers. " Only a shilling an envelope—and they're all prizes,—together with a view of the world! .Do try your luck, sir," pleaded the plausible manoeuverers, as they plied their visitors with a pertinacity that placed church bazaar stallholders completely in the shade. • A* good many shillings were extracted from the gullible ones, and it was something amusing to see how their jaws dropped when found that in exchange for their silver they received about half its weight of burnished brass, a penny brooch, a bottle, of scented water, or a two-penny cake of soap. The prizes appeared to be all of a kind, and to average from a half-penny up to a sixpence in fair commercial yalue and, judging from the crowded state of the shed, the Jeremys must have done a pretty profitable trade.. How sensible people, with legitimate business places to supply their requirements, can" be induced to allow themselves to be ensnared with concertinas and stereoscopes, and victimised through the agency of sealed envelopes, is something; most astonishing.

The Government Insurance Department.—There are serious rumors afloat (say 3 the Wellington correspondent of the 1 Lyttelton Times ') as to the dissatisfaction existing in the Government Insurance Department, and this feeling amongst the employes is said to be telling in a very marked degree on the business of the department. Since Mr. Gisborne's retirement, Mr. Woodward, the Public Trustee, has been acting nominal head of the department, but the real management has been in the hands of Mr. Godfrey Knight, a son of Dr. Knight, the Auditor-General': This young man was some two or three years ago sent home at the 'Government expense to enable him to become a.member of the Institute of Actuarie6 r duly dubbed the Actuary of.thei-Degart-i ment, and as such controls iis> entire administration, and that, it issaid, iiot in the most judicious manner. There is a good deal of talk" here on the subject.

An Auckland clergyman, after praying for the Queen and those in authority, mentioned also " those who wrote in the Press qnd formed public opinion by that means." De Witt Talmage, the great American preacher, has also directed his attention to the members of the " Fourth Estate," and in the course of an eloquent and practical sermon he said: " One of the great trials of this newspaper profession is the fact that they are compelled to see more of the shams, of the world than any other profession. Through every newspaper office, day by day, go the weaknesses of the world, the vanities that want to be puffed, the revenges that want to be wreaked, all the mistakes that want to? be corrected, all the dull speakers that want to be thought eloquent, all the nieanmss that wants to get its'wares noticed gratis in the editorial columns in .order to save the tax of the advertising columns, all the men who want to be set ri<rht who never were right, all the crack brained philosophers, with story as long as their hair and as gloomy as their finger-nails, in

mourning because bereft of soap ; all the itinerant, bores who -come. to stay . five minutes arid stop an hour. From the editorial and reportorial rooms all the follies and-shams of the world are seen day by day, and the temptation is to believe neither in God'/ nian/ nor w'oniaii. If is no surprise'to me that, in■] your profession there are some sceptieal. men. I only wonder that ytiii . believe anything at all. : Unless an editor or a, reporter have in hi 3 present or in his early home a model of earnest character, or he throw himself upon the grace of God, he must make..tern? poral and eternal shipwreck." '.'Should hostilities, ensue 'between Russia and Turkey, it is proposed to establish in liondon a penny illustrated daily paper entitled' The. War.' •

. The proprietors of the 'Daily Telegraph' have ipublished. a certificate from an emi-. nent arm of accountants to the. effect that, the circulation of. the ' Telegraph,* during, the five hiontlis ending JJecember 1st 5 ,-- averaged 200,317 ; daily: 1 a ; wonderful circulation, truly ! but this is said to be" outdone by the ' Petit Journal,' published in Paris, which gives 4 : 0'0;500 as the number ol its daily issue. The largest circulation in America, 125;000 by the New York - Sun.' The ' Jlerald has 65,000 ; The ' Tribune ' 50,000, and the 'primes;' 40,000. In 1840 there were eighteen dailies"; published in New York... Since then no'fevver than 118 dailies Jiav6 ; beeh :: started;but .the mortality amongst them has been so great that' the present nuriiber of the daily: journals is precisely, the same as in 1840, with the difference'that the daily circulation is'now 450,000 instead of 6(3,000: ■